That ESPN-driven effort to have the Dodgers open the season in San Francisco March 31 -- instead of at Dodger Stadium against the Giants on April 1 as scheduled -- apparently has been squelched. [...]

Instead, baseball sources have told The Times' Dylan Hernandez that the Dodgers-Giants season-opening four-game series will likely start on March 31 at Dodger Stadium.

So instead of the Dodgers hosting the Giants in the season opener April 1 as previously scheduled, they will host the Giants a day earlier.

That means the Dodgers won't have to suffer the indignation of having to fly to San Francisco to watch the Giants unfurl their World Series banner on a Thursday, and then return to Los Angeles that night to start the four-game series against the Giants the following day.

Under the current proposal, each of the series' games would be pushed back one day, leaving the Dodgers with an off day on Monday.

That's hardly ideal, because the Dodgers already have an off day scheduled on Thursday, April 7, but it certainly beats having to fly up to San Fransisco for one day just to watch the Giants celebrate in their ballpark.

In a weird way, I for one wasn't wholly against the Opening-Day-in-Big-Phone-Park idea, confident that the Dodgers would rise to the challenge and beat them down on national television, just as we did when they brought the Dodgers in to christen Big Phone Park in 2000 (that's a SWEEP, btw). But if we get the opening day moved to Dodger Stadium, I'm cool with that too.

I'm going to be at Opening Day either day, either way. I've cleared out my calendar on both days, Dodgers. You just tell me when you're ready to announce.